1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface mount CHIP antenna and more particularly to a surface mount CHIP antenna for a wireless communications device such as a wireless modem, cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, etc. More particularly, the antenna is mounted directly to the unit""s circuit board and is not visible once the unit is assembled.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular telephones and other electronic and communications devices continue to be designed into smaller packages. Electronic technologies are being pushed to reduce the size of each component associated with the devices to enable the overall size of the package to become smaller, lighter in weight, and more user-friendly. One way to do this is to remove the external antenna and replace it with an internal antenna. An internal antenna may not have the same effective range as an external antenna, but works well with some of the new communications bands such as Bluetooth, PCS, etc.
A surface mount chip antenna for a wireless communications device such as a wireless modem, cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, etc., is described and includes a conductive trace having two or more leads that are soldered to the circuit board of the device. The main lead is soldered to the feed from the transceiver circuit and the other leads are soldered to the ground plane. The conductive trace forms a serpentine pattern parallel to the circuit board creating a radiating element. The radiating element feed point lead is not electrically connected to the ground plane leads. The conductive trace is encapsulated in a high temperature, non-conductive dielectric material that is able to withstand the high temperatures of reflow soldering.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide a surface mount CHIP antenna for a wireless communications device such as a wireless modem, cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, etc.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a surface mount CHIP antenna which exhibits electrical performance for gain and transmitted power which is equivalent to a traditional external antenna.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a CHIP antenna which is cost-effective to manufacture.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a CHIP antenna which is small and lightweight so as to be able to be fit into any existing device without the need for an external antenna.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an antenna that can be tuned to a resonant frequency by changing the length of the conductive trace, the dielectric used to encapsulate the trace, the width of the conductive trace, the separation distances between the parallel elements of the trace within the serpentine, the separation distance between the grounded contact and the active radiating element, and the length of the grounded contact in relation to the radiating element.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an antenna wherein the above-listed objectives can be accomplished without altering the external physical dimensions of the antenna.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.